Hamilton, Rufus King, Gerry; _The Federalist_.--Reprints in P. L. Ford,
_Pamphlets on the Constitution of the United States_, and _Essays on the
Constitution; American History told by Contemporaries_, III.; _Library of
American Literature_, VI.


60. THE FEDERAL CONVENTION ASSEMBLED (1787).


[Sidenote: A convention suggested.]
[Sidenote: Annapolis Convention.]
[Sidenote: Action of Congress.]

That Congress did not possess the confidence of the country was evident
from the failure of all its amendments. It had, therefore, been suggested
first by Hamilton in 1780, later by Tom Paine in his widespread pamphlet
"Public Good," that a convention be specially summoned to revise the
Articles of Confederation. The initiative in the movement was finally
taken by the States. In 1786 the intolerable condition of internal
commerce caused Virginia to suggest to the sister States that a conference
be held at Annapolis. The few delegates who appeared separated, after
recommending that there be held "a convention of delegates from the
different States ... to devise such further provisions as shall appear to
them necessary to render the constitution of the federal government
adequate." Congress was no longer able to resist the movement: on Feb. 1,
1787, it resolved that a convention be held "for the sole and express
purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation, and reporting to
Congress and the several legislatures such alterations and provisions
therein as shall, when agreed to by Congress and confirmed by the States,
render the federal government adequate to the exigencies of government and